Nathan Quinn

I've lived internationally in Italy, Germany, Spain, England, and the Netherlands. Experiencing those cultures helped me see parallels and understand that this is part of the human condition: irrespective of cultural origin, people have a shared need to be seen, supported, and connected. In indigenous cultures, tribes had a chieftain, a shaman, and other categories represented, including wisdom keepers and two-spirited people, who were highly valued for balancing masculine and feminine energies. Children would learn from two-spirited people to better understand that balance. We've discarded much of that knowledge. Societies struggle to evolve because they haven't integrated these universal, effective principles.

Well, I wouldn't say that it would be a struggle in trying to answer your question. I've always early on looked at them instead of as struggles as challenges. The difference to me in that wording is a struggle is something that seems endlessly unachievable or not easily overcome, because therein it's a struggle. You're already underwater and struggling, whereas a challenge means it's actually asking you to step up, even in an adverse scenario. It's asking you to challenge both the lesser and better angels of your nature to find a pathway forward. I also thought about it as these struggles or challenges were somehow a spiritual test for your evolution. My self-language looks at it as a test. I go into test success mode, which is to study why this topic is challenging me in this way, what I possess inside of me to overcome it, or what I need to learn in myself to overcome it. What behaviors or self-languages do I need to modify to overcome that so it's not quite as dire as a struggle, but now a more scientific or mental exercise.

If everyone was able to live with choice in their life that was self-created, with a sense of their uniqueness and their purpose, that's got to be either Nirvana or heaven. If this is what we're enduring now on the planet, then that could be, I think, the most reasonable iteration of heaven because we would all be in the higher angels of our nature. We would be capable of understanding our value and, therein, an even more effective node of clarity. We're like an atom. Each molecule is a part of the circular collective and whole, and if we're all firing on all cylinders, wow, that's got to be the best iteration of heaven or Nirvana. We know the universe is infinite, but we also know it's molecular. We have relevance, and the fact that we're still living means there's something we're still supposed to be able to affect. If you focus on the positive at the forefront of your interactions, which is sometimes hard because the dogma in the world is one thing, and considering external influences and nature, that's the constant human challenge or test for me.

We were in Germany and then Austria and then we made our way west across the states to finally end up in Arizona. Later, as I perfected my brand or my being, I continued to evolve within communities. I've lived internationally in Italy, Germany, Spain, England, and the Netherlands. Experiencing those cultures helped me see parallels and understand that this is part of the human condition: irrespective of cultural origin, people have a shared need to be seen, supported, and connected. Human responsibility to continue to evolve your humanity and your personhood. Later in life, I was able to use these universal tenets of empathy, inventiveness, and resourcefulness to apply them to new scenarios where I wanted to lean in and assist in helping communities evolve.

As a test, what I would say to help people focus on identifying their purpose is to come to a baseline where socialization is taken out of the equation. I get quiet with myself, usually in nature, where I find organic inspiration observing birds, how they interact, how they feed, how they communicate. Nature has worked for millions of years in harmony and balance. You have an onus to find out for yourself who you really are. Spend time with yourself without distraction, not just meditating, but reading and using it as context to gauge where you are in relation to what is being presented, and to see your place in the story.

As I was coming through the ranks, I created my own little dance troupe called the Cassettes early on. We found ways to go into clubs and monetize because disco was big at the time, and many nightclubs were having disco dance competitions. I found a way to earn money legally, to get out of my house, to put money in the bank for adult success, and to elevate the fortunes of other people. I picked some of my favorite people because I was the choreographer, visionary, and the guy who went out to grab clients. I was able to create great associations with entrepreneurs and business owners. Very quickly, I formed my first business, Scandali Productions, because I always thought I was scandalous. I was bringing an aesthetic that wasn't prevalent in the market in ways that were very creative and impactful. Early on, I figured that I'm an entrepreneur because I did work in corporate for a couple of years on a part-time basis. I got a position at a department store and thought that I would be a regional or international buyer for the men's department there. When I kept hitting a wall with being promoted at that business, I said, well, I'm just not getting where I want to be. I went out into the market and created my own business and started to go to entrepreneurs as a B2B kind of construct, which got me much further, much quicker.

I realized they were a social couple, so they would have friends over, other officers from the base. So I could get to stay up later, past my bedtime, if I could do something really adult, like they would ask me a question that a kid maybe four or five years old shouldn't reasonably be able to answer, and certainly either in German or in English at an adult level, I guess, is the context. And so I would really try to come up with those little jewels and tidbits. I think that was one of the first moments that I realized that if I could do that, I could find little joy in myself. Even in your subconscious, when these positive, self-nurturing thoughts become regular, they help you build a clearer identity around your purpose when you're conscious and interacting with the world. For me, a lot of people define themselves around what society expects or what their parents hoped for them. I've spent enough time with myself and tested these theories, whether I was born to be an athlete or something else.

Luckily for me, both of my parents are off the planet now, but when they were alive, I would hug them, kiss them, lavish them, and constantly communicate my reverence for them as real guides and mentors who poured a lot of love into me as a being. After that, my mom sent me. She said, 'You're going to turn around and go back to school because you're going to school to get an education. You're not going to school to win a popularity contest.' She said, 'Quinn, I don't know why you keep talking to me. You need to go back. The world is going to be full of people who don't understand you and who don't see you. So go there and get your education.' Not to say that other people don't have access to the same source, but as a result of the uniqueness of each life and the circumstances into which people are born and evolve, some are exposed to evolutionary mindsets and some are not. The more evolved male, with people like Deepak Chopra, philosophy coaches, Anthony Robbins, and others, are talking about success as a human and especially as a male.

Discover Prisma Community Care, your trusted nonprofit health clinic in downtown Phoenix. Formerly known as the Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS, we have 34 years of experience providing inclusive health services. Explore our comprehensive offerings, including primary care, mental health services, HIV testing, STI treatment, and holistic wellness. Learn more about how we support you!

I started to see people of color because I am a person of color and tried to be effective in business and interpersonal relationships. I also started to see the LGBTQ community as part of my tribe because they were othered in their existence. I began to lean in and work with underserved or underdeveloped communities early on. When the AIDS crisis happened in Africa, I felt, as an African-American, that it was impacting me, especially as an African-American male. I couldn't figure out why, and I realized I could be helpful to African men. I volunteered for an AIDS organization, Phoenix Body Positive, back in the day. I got involved in communities so I could ensure people felt seen and supported, and I tried to use my skill sets to uplift and help them. I knew I was looking for my tribe. I was in choir, and I became a concert choir member very early on. That took me into other things in life because we were competing nationally and then internationally.

I also thought about it as these struggles or challenges were somehow a spiritual test for your evolution, to see if when this energy of negativity or challenge is toggling you to feel inadequate or less than. I've always had the line that this is a test of who I am and where I am as an individual, how I'm balanced. My self-language looks at it as a test. I go into test success mode, which is to study why this topic is challenging me in this way, what I possess inside of me to overcome it, or what I need to learn in myself to overcome it. As a test, what I would say to help people focus on identifying their purpose is to come to a baseline where socialization is taken out of the equation. I get quiet with myself. You have an onus to find out for yourself who you really are. Spend time with yourself without distraction, not just meditating, but reading and using it as context to gauge where you are in relation to what is being presented, and to see your place in the story. Spending time by myself, being in quiet, finding out who I am now gives me an opportunity because I've got freed mind space, freed energy, and no outside detractors. After doing that a series of times as a regular practice, I've been able to be inspired.

When we left Europe and came to the States, I was seven years of age. So I then had a new context that I was landing in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and I was wearing lederhosen and clogs and trying to speak in German. The kids would say, 'You're weird.' I remember that being one of the things. And so I went home crying and my mom was just like, 'Well, I don't care. What did they call you by your name? Did they?' So then why are you, and I said, 'No, but they were shouting things at me.' And she said, 'Well, then if they didn't call you by your name, why are you giving those kids that power?' That was when I kind of realized that I am really different, and not just because of my skin color, but because of my disposition. After that, my mom sent me. She said, 'You're going to turn around and go back to school because you're going to school to get an education. You're not going to school to win a popularity contest.' Along the way, because I know who I am as a person, my orientation as a bisexual male, and my father being Welsh and my mother African-American, I am a bicultured individual. I was always navigating other categories in general society and trying to find better resonance with my tribe.

I would say to uplift and assist others and to also try to be an example of possible. I was the youngest of four kids, and so my mother was a joyous woman and my father was probably a little more serious, but I was the baby. So I was always spending a little time by myself. About the time that I was four or five years old, I would notice that my dad would come home from work and my mom would be handling the kids, and he would be a little stressed, but he loved music and he loved dance and my mother the same. And so it would seemingly be my mission to come up with a funny thing to say to him or a funny thing to say to my mom. I think that was one of the first moments that I realized that if I could do that, I could find little joy in myself that I wanted to convey to my mother and my father so that they could have the same kind of joy. So that I thought was an early kind of identifier of what I felt like, at least in my family structure, my purpose was. That's when I kind of had a personal ownership in this court jester disposition that I thought was part of my purpose, to help people smile, help people get out of their ruts, if not comically, then energetically. By college, I was very clear about who I was and what I intended to do. I knew that I was a creative. I knew that I wanted to make people laugh. I knew I wanted to try to elevate the fortunes of other people if I could.